I could hardly function in my tiny (10 ft. X 10 ft. former bedroom) quilting
studio/sewing room. I was frustrated and going crazy in there with the mess
and no where to put anything. So I've spent the past week cleaning, buying
kitchen and bathroom cabinets and installing those- all by myself!!!- and
getting everything organized and put away. You are invited to tour my new
'home'! (It's not quite finished, but it's functional and a joy to work in
there!)

The garage just didn't work out for sewing. This garage has a sloped floor-
as is proper for water/snow/rain run-off- it would be too expensive to get
it leveled or frame-out the floor. The heat and a/c was going to be a major
expense, too. It just made more sense to start over with a new house that
had what I want rather than to try to make this house fit my needs. So I
made the garage back into a garage and now use a spare bedroom for sewing.
This house will go up for sale in the spring and I'll start building the
next one.... *if* everything falls into place like I hope it will.....

Okay. Let's get this straightened out. VBG I will not be physically
building the house! I will be acting as the general contractor and hire
each of the trades and manage the building and check to see that everything
is done correctly. That's MY part of it.... NOT swinging a hammer and
hefting a Skill saw!

Hi Pat! On the side with the cutting table I ended up with less than 1/4
in. to spare! I really cut it close with the measurements. The cutting
table is a 48 in. kitchen peninsula cabinet with doors on both sides- more
storage!- that is a standard 36 in. high to save my back when working there.
Also, it's on casters so I can move it away from the wall and use it for pin
basting the sandwich. The Formica top on it is a 3 ft. X 5 ft. sheet of 1
in. thick plywood with sheet Formica glued to it- a standard kitchen
countertop is too thick for the black binder clamps I use for pin basting.
It also has a 3 ft. X 5 ft. cutting mat on top of it.

The sewing table side of the room was MUCH more forgiving- I had about 2
inches to spare! LOL I encourage you to think outside the box. I wish I
had John's amazing woodworking skills, but I made do with inexpensive
ready-made kitchen and bath cabinets from the home improvement store. I
think it worked out pretty well!

The thread storage is three 36 in. wide X 12 in. deep kitchen wall cabinets-
they are standard height which is 30 in. I just stacked them and screwed
them into the stud in the wall- one screw in each cabinet. The fabric
storage is two 18 in. wide and 12 in. deep by 84 in. tall cabinets that they
call 'linen cabinets' also one screw each in the wall studs. The wall
cabinets were about $106 each and the pantry cabinets were about $153 each.
Try Lowe's and Home Depot for their ready made cabinets. You might look for
a dealer of Kitchen Kompact cabinets www.kitchenkompact.com. That's the
brand name and I used their least expensive line in oak called Chadwood.
When I worked for a contractor many years ago he used that brand name
exclusively- but he used mostly their upper line of oak cabinets called
Richwood, I think- those cabinets are all relatively inexpensive and nicely
made. I have used them in six or seven houses that I built or remodeled
plus this house's kitchen, laundry room and now my sewing room. HTH